Essy's Carriage House - Arlington

I finally had the chance to visit this long-standing Arlington establishment a couple of weeks before the owners retire. I'm glad we made it in time. It's a classic, traditional restaurant with large portions (it seemed like everyone left with leftovers). The owner personally delivered our food and drinks to the table and seemed to know everyone in the room (except for maybe us). The food was simple yet expertly prepared. It will be sad to see this place go.

The service was bad and very slow, the wine list was limited, and the food we ordered was the worst we had in a long time. We ordered their signature dishes, crab cake and crab imperial based on the reviews; but both dishes were overcooked and had no flavor. We will not go back nor recommend this place.

Although this place is a favorite with the locals, it was a disappointment even though it had been strongly recommended by a local who recently dined there. I dined at 7pm on a fine Friday evening and was surprised that the restaurant was nearly empty. I looked forward to the Weiner schnitzel which should be a piece of veal, pounded thin, lightly breaded and sautéed. What I got was heavily breaded, deep friend, chewy gristly, veal(? scaloppini accompanied by 4 quarter sized thin and burnt potato pancakes and some bitter red cabbage. The dessert was obviously purchased frozen from an outside source and not made in-house despite the restaurant 's reputation and price. Perhaps, the bloom is off for the locals given the emptiness of the restaurant?

Wiener schnitzel is amazing; tender, juicy and as delicious as the cutlets my grandmother used to make.

If you can work around the grumpy owner, everything will be OK. We came for Christmas Eve dinner and were seated immediately. This is a family owned restaurant and the waiter said he was the nephew and doesn’t usually work there and was helping out that evening. The staff seems to tag team serving tables. After waiting a while, we had to ask for menus. Then we had to ask that our drink order be taken. After waiting again, the owner came by and we said we were ready to order. He said we just got our wine and should sit and relax and there was plenty of time to order later. What?!! Luckily, the waiter came by and we were able to order. The food: the fried calamari appetizer is clearly breaded and frozen from a box. Looks more like onion rings so it’s nothing special. The salad was a bed of lettuce and 3 tomatoes strategically placed around the edge of the plate. That’s it! We waited again for the waiter and told him the salads didn’t have any dressing so he apologized and brought each of us some Italian dressing that we poured over the lettuce. We both had thick lamb chops that were cooked perfectly. The roasted potatoes were perfectly browned on the outside and creamy on the inside. The green beans had some sauce on it that reminded me of my great aunt’s green bean casserole. That’s not a compliment. The meal also had a few slices of bread and butter that I liked. We didn’t order dessert.More about the owner: during dinner service, we noticed that our waiter was filling some water glasses at another table and was told by the owner not to do that. Later, the waiter was changing the table cloth from a table next to me and the owner came over and told the waiter in a grumpy tone he didn’t need to do that. So, if you can put up with the grumpy and rude owner, it will all be OK.